Being a pretty private person this is quite hard to post, but I think I am ready to share, any questions please ask.
Spewing I missed the Coffs ride too looks like all had a great time and the boys did a great job with the organisation etc.
Cheers
Chris.
It was a usual Thursday morning, 1/11/2012 feeling a bit fatigued from gym the previous night, breakfast was the usual cup of tea and cigarette. I had a niggling pain in my back that I put down to gym the previous evening and thought nothing of it. Somewhere between 11-12 after running up a set of stairs, I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my back and thought it was a bit unusual but ignored it as it subsided after several seconds. I kept going as usual however the pain returned and became more persistent still though I chose to ignore it as I believed it was muscular pain from the gym session the night before. As the pain gradually became worse I decided that I needed to sit and relax and it would go away, after sitting in my car for several minutes I decided to drive to a friends place of business, where I would feel comfortable and thought that it would take my mind off the pain which was still increasingly becoming worse, I had a cup of water and 2 neurofen still believing that the pain was muscular, it was shortly after that the pain became excruciating and I began to think that something wasn’t right, the best way I can explain is someone digging a knife into my back and twisting it ever so slowly. At this point I made the decision to go home to lie down and rest, however for some unknown reason once I drove out of the driveway I found myself heading to the hospital it was like I was being guided and was on remote control, I don’t really recall the drive but do recall sitting at the car park gate waiting in the queue for a car spot. It was now that I started to sweat uncontrollably and had the air conditioning in the car turned up full, I must have sat waiting for a car spot for 15minutes but cannot be entirely sure. Once I had parked it was an effort to get out of the car as the pain was now worse than ever, I managed to make my way to emergency after I had missed the turn off once and had to double back. Once in Emergency and at the counter, I must have looked a real site, I was practically soaked through with sweat and was told later that I was very pale and pasty looking. After a very brief check in I was taken straight into the triage room for assessment and I would have been there for no more than 30 seconds before being wheeled off in a wheelchair to another room, where I was greeted by a doctor and a nurse, I had an EKG performed, (quickest EKG I have ever seen) several questions were asked about my symptoms. The EKG took about 20 seconds and when the results came out on that little bit of paper with the squiggly lines, this is when things started heating up and I knew something serious was happening, (I still however at this stage had no idea what!).
I was wheeled on the bed around to another room which later I found out was the re-sus room and I would have been surrounded by at least 15 doctors/nurses/students etc, all fighting to stab me with some sort of needle or drugs of some sort, I was stripped naked and my groin shaven in seconds, the call went out over the PA for the resus team to come urgently and I could see a team of maybe 10 people standing outside the door with lots of trolleys and different equipment, I asked one of the nurses if was going to die and she said they are doing everything they can. (not what you want to hear). It was only now that I started to grasp the seriousness of what was happening and thoughts of my family and children came into my mind, no I didn’t see my life flash before my eyes nor did I see any white light
I estimate that I was in this room for maybe 10-15minutes, however the timing now eludes me as I’m pretty sure I was now in the midst of an anxiety attack and wondering what the hell was happening.
I was on the move again this time to level 4 the “Cath Lab”, where unbelievably they were already to go, apparently they pushed me in front of someone else who wasn’t going to die in 10 minutes.
The equipment in this room was amazing and being a bit of a teccy I found it fascinating, I had the best people I could have hoped for with Michael, Lauren and Professor Fitzpatrick. There would have been 8-10 people in the room with maybe 4-5 more behind the window all looking at computer screens, I was moved from my rolling bed onto the operating table where I was splashed with antiseptic all over and given more needles, this time something for the pain a shot of Morphine was enough only to take the edge off the pain but I wasn’t so concerned anymore. Michael and Lauren kept me from falling into a massive anxiety attack as the mood was kept somewhat jovial and I managed to have a few jokes with them, I recall being given a local anathesic in my groin before a 6” tube was inserted into my femoral artery. Above me was a x-ray machine that moved around and seemed to track what the doctor was doing, I could see it all on the screens next to me. The doctor was describing to me what he was doing, wether it was to me or someone else I don’t know but I could hear everything as I was kept awake for the whole procedure. A thin wire was inserted into the tube in my groin and fed up through my artery into my heart where I heard the Dr say “Found IT”
from here it is a little blurry as by now the morphine was taking hold, I do recall, Dr asking for more suction, assuming they were sucking the clot out, there was some discussion as to what size stent to put in and I told them to make it a big one I also remember asking how will I get past airport security now, dumbest question ever!!! I believe that the stent ended up being 30mm * 3mm but cant be 100% sure. The wire was I think taken out and a balloon attached to inflate the artery where the blockage had been, I think this was then removed and the stent was then placed on another balloon and re-inserted to the point where the clot had been, the balloon was then inflated which opened the stent the balloon is then inflated and deflated to shape the stent. Once the balloon was removed and the stent in place the pain was replaced by a feeling of near euphoria, like I had been given an extra dose of morphine. The pain was immediately gone as blood had now started circulating again. It was maybe another 10-15minutes of probing around before I was on my way to recovery.
It was all very surreal and took several days to sink in what had actually happened, They suspect a piece of plaque had broken away and lodged or scratched my artery where the natural response from your body is to form a clot around the injury site.
Diagnosis, 100% clot in right ventricular artery.
All in all I was extremely lucky that I got myself to the hospital when I did, that I actually made it at all, my wife and mum were told that I may not make it, (the reason for this I have only just found out but won’t be discussing just yet). I am lucky that I had been going to the gym and excersizing for the last 3 months as this strengthened my heart and cardiovascular system so as it managed to cope with such a trauma and had also lost between 7-8kgs. I am blessed by the people that were at the hospital at that particular time, from Sarah in emergency who took me straight in and stayed near me whilst in emergency and also phoned my wife and mother, Michael and Lauren who were hilarious and kept my mind off what was really going on, Professor Michael Fitzpatrick whom unblocked me and to whom I am eternally grateful, all the nurses in the cardio ward, Gita, Denise and all those whose name I cannot remember but they were all fantastic. I am also extremely lucky that I did not suffer any permanent damage to my heart muscle and the prognosis is for 100% recovery after about 6 weeks.
So I tell you this so you can all.
Get your cholesterol levels checked mine were 9.2 at hospital should be around 4
Stop Smoking – Hardest thing I have ever had to do
Try and keep stress levels down, I blame smoking and stress. Being Stressed 24/7 is not good for you.
Eat Healthy and excersize.
Heart Attack pain is not necessarily over your heart it can literally be anywhere, but my pain was something I had never felt before.
I had been feeling like crap for months prior, maybe this was a warning sign and probably should have insisted on more tests etc,
